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Papers of the Week


Papers: 16 Jul 2022 - 22 Jul 2022

RESEARCH TYPE:
Psychology


Animal Studies


2022 Jul 08


Science


377


6602

Editor's Pick

Sound induces analgesia through corticothalamic circuits.

Authors

Zhou W, Ye C, Wang H, Mao Y, Zhang W, Liu A, Yang C-L, Li T, Hayashi L, Zhao W, Chen L, Liu Y, Tao W, Zhang Z
Science. 2022 Jul 08; 377(6602):198-204.
PMID: 35857536.

Abstract

Sound-including music and noise-can relieve pain in humans, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain unknown. We discovered that analgesic effects of sound depended on a low (5-decibel) signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) relative to ambient noise in mice. Viral tracing, microendoscopic calcium imaging, and multitetrode recordings in freely moving mice showed that low-SNR sounds inhibited glutamatergic inputs from the auditory cortex (ACx) to the thalamic posterior (PO) and ventral posterior (VP) nuclei. Optogenetic or chemogenetic inhibition of the ACx→PO and ACx→VP circuits mimicked the low-SNR sound-induced analgesia in inflamed hindpaws and forepaws, respectively. Artificial activation of these two circuits abolished the sound-induced analgesia. Our study reveals the corticothalamic circuits underlying sound-promoted analgesia by deciphering the role of the auditory system in pain processing.